Unexpected result

[anbu23]

dms holds string. Hence dms[0] gives first char which is expected behaviour.

Use split() as here to convert input to list

>>> dms = input('DR_Lat (deg,min,sec,N/S/E/W) = ')
DR_Lat (deg,min,sec,N/S/E/W) = 54,20,20
>>> dms
'54,20,20'
>>> type(dms)
<class 'str'>
>>> dms[0]
'5'
>>> dmsLst = input('DR_Lat (deg,min,sec,N/S/E/W) = ').split(",")
DR_Lat (deg,min,sec,N/S/E/W) = 54,20,20
>>> type(dmsLst)
<class 'list'>
>>> dmsLst[0]
'54'